


Adam’s nightmare

by Guntherfish



Category: Mutant X
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Forgiveness, Hurt/Comfort, Mind Control, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:00:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24313162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guntherfish/pseuds/Guntherfish
Summary: While on a mission for Adam; Jesse, Shalimar and Brennan are hit by a device created by Ashlocke  that causes them to turn on Adam. Will Adam be able to endure the torture long enough for Emma to return from her vacation, or will it be too late.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2





	1. The awakening

**Author's Note:**

> First ever fan fiction. Please leave any pointers and or criticism for me in the comments so I can become a better writer!

Locked in an intense battle with Ashlock, Jesse swings at him with a heavy right hook which by a hair Ashlock dodges, smirking at the pathetic attempt made by Jesse. Discombobulated by the dodge of Ashlock, Jesse is oblivious to another mutant getting ready to attack him. 

“Jesse look out!” Brennan shouts, warning Jesse as he glances at his teammate, noticing another giant like brunette mutant creeping towards Jesse, getting ready to throw a burning ball of light. 

“Huh” Jesse asks as he whips his head around only to notice his two other teammates jerk backward as if it by an invisible force, until he himself is hit by that same force. Jesse notices how said force was actually a shiny disk but does not have enough time to fixate on the disk as it attaches itself onto his neck.  
Simultaneously Brennan and Shalimar are hit with the same small round disks each suctioning onto their necks like an unforgiving leech. 

“You will return to sanctuary and betray Adam. Give him hell until instructed otherwise.” Booms Ashlocks command as his voice reverberates around the room. Swiftly stalking over towards the three mutants kneeling on the ground like a master looking at his kneeling pets, Ashlock sinisterly smiles watching as the three mutants look upward at their commander. As their eyes glow a green color indicating their obedience as they stare up at Ashlock, they stand up and swiftly move towards the helix ready to head back to sanctuary to locate Adam. 

“Time for you to pay Adam Kane...” Ashlock whispers with glee. Turning to his followers “it is time for those who made us the way we are to be punished for their sins and feel the pain we suffer” Ashlock exclaims in a powerful shout. Ashlock watches as those who are loyal to him stand in agreement of his belief. He watches as the room is filled with tension and anger towards the scientists of Genomex and turns to watch as the three members of mutant x vanish to complete their task. 

Landing at sanctuary, Brennan, Shalimar and Jesse hop out of the helix and immediately head towards the Med lab where Adam is working. 

“How did everything go?” Adam asks with all sincerity as he feels their eyes on his back as he works at his computer. Waiting for an answer,he begins to slowly turn around in his chair as his stomach drops in anticipation. Once Adam is fully facing the three mutants he is frightened to be met with three pairs of green eyes staring at him with menacing smiles but also notices the disks on the sides of their necks. “Guys...” Adam quivers. 

Fearfully Adam stands up and begins inching his way towards the door and quickly decides to run towards the exit of the lab. 

Catching on to his strategy, Jesse and Brennan leap at Adam grabbing his arms and begin to forcefully haul him towards the medical chair in the middle of the room. Struggling to get away Jesse and Brennan quickly pin Adam onto the chair and speedily put Adam’s wrists and ankles in metal restraints that are attached to the chair. Adam all the while is fighting against their solid grips and the restraints once he is locked in and secured. 

“WHAT THE HELL!?!” Adam screams violently struggling to break free from the restraints. “BRENNAN, JESSE, SHALIMAR, THIS ISN’T YOU SNAP OUT OF IT!” Adam yells trying to get them out of their mind controlled trance. 

A flash of movement catches Adam’s eye as he receives a punch to the face from Brennan stunning him. The punch successfully halts his attempts at trying to break free. 

Adam grunts as blood begins to drip from his nose and down his face as a reminder of where Brennan had just hit him. Eyes filling with tears Adam leans his head back against the headrest, head throbbing from the punch. Adam closes his eyes for a moment and tries desperately to stop his vision from swimming. 

As he closes his eyes, Shalimar in one swift motion whips her hand out and fastens a strong grip on Adam’s throat, squeezing it tightly, strangling him. 

Gasping for air like a fish out of water, Adam’s eyes pop open out of sheer panic as he opens his mouth to try and breathe in as much air into his lungs as possible with the vice like grip at his throat.  
“Shalimar please” Adam gasps trying to reach Shalimar and break her out of the trance. 

Jesse and Brennan, standing beside Adam and Shalimar take the opportunity to place a cloth in his mouth and tape it down tightly with duct tape to prevent him from speaking. 

Once the gag is firmly in place the hand at his throat is retracted and he is able to breathe through his nose at least with the gag in his mouth and the hand that was strangling him is now gone. Adam angrily glances up at Shalimar mumbling incoherent words through the gag as Shalimar smiles menacingly at him. 

“Listen closely Adam, we have decided we are going to have some fun ‘playing’ with you after everything you have put us through. Aren’t we?” Brennan asks menacingly as he turns to look at Jesse and Shalimar who smile and nod in agreement. 

Frightened, Adam begins to struggle again like a trapped animal as he realizes the severity of the situation he is in and begins squirming in a panic. “Mmmmph!” Adam yells through the gag trying to cry for help. 

Shalimar's hand is back at his throat, squeezing just as hard, to stop him from struggling, clearly annoyed at his continued attempts at breaking free. Struggling to breathe Adam is well aware of the darkening of his vision. 

Jesse walks over to one of the cabinets he has seen Adam use many times before after returning from missions. He opens the cabinet and grabs a hypospray that has a sedative in it. Smirking, Jesse walks back over to where Adam is restrained with Shalimar straddling Adam with her hand still firmly grasping his neck. Shalimar moves Adam’s head to one side giving Jesse access to Adam's neck. He presses the hypospray up against Adam’s neck and releases the drug.

Adam, distracted by the need to breathe, is unaware of Jesse’s presence next to him and is startled as he feels the hypospray pushed against the side of his neck. Before Adam can begin to protest the drug is released into his neck with a swooshing sound. 

Shalimar released her grip from Adam’s neck while dismounting him and admires the bruises beginning to form. Satisfied, Shalimar continues looking at Adam as he struggles in his bonds, watching as his eyes begin to glass over as he succumbs to the drug flowing through his body. 

Weakly Adam looks up to his so called team and watches as they stare at him intently as he begins to fall asleep. With a final pleading glance at his team, Adam falls into the abyss of darkness going limp in the chair.


	2. The suffering

Two hours later: 

Later, Adam slowly awakens as chills run through his body as he realizes he is laying on a stone cold floor. Looking around for any indication of where he may be, Adam comes to the conclusion he is in some sort of holding cell. Now why the hell would I have a holding cell in sanctuary. Once I get out of this I am changing this room into a computer area Adam chastises himself. 

Slowly and painfully, Adam begins to lift himself off the floor only to fall back down with a thud as he is hit with a dizzy spell and a bout of nausea. Closing his eyes while grabbing his head, Adam tries to calm his stomach and keep from passing out. Adam begins taking deep breaths to slow his heart rate which he learned to do from meditating 

Adam is startled out of his meditative state by the loud slam of the door to the room being forcefully opened. Squinting at the doorway Adam is able to make out Brennan's outline as bright light shines in from the hallway. “I see you're finally awake,” Brennan mockingly states as he sauntered over to Adam. 

“For today, we are going to do a little exercise. Given your fighting abilities, I thought I could train against you for the fun of it.” Brennan states smirking at how easily he can take Adam down. “But to make this even more fun, why not feel the back of your neck?” Brennan exclaims joyfully looking at Adam who’s eyes appear to be popping out of his head.

Smiling, Brennan enjoys watching as Adam frantically grabs the back of his neck, turning multiple shades of green then pale as his hands brush over a cold solid disk at the base of his neck. 

“A subdermal governor?” Adam asks in fear and amazement, still running his hand over the back of his neck, mesmerized by the feeling of the cold metal disk. 

“How did you even get one of these, clearly I am not a mutant so how did you implant it?” Adam asked in confusion and wonder. 

“Well Adam it’s similar to our sub-dermal governors that Ekchart would use but in this case it can be used as punishment on non-mutants. It presses on your nerves to keep you fairly weak. We can control you Adam, and we can make it very painful if you try to escape.” 

As if to prove his point Brennan presses down on the remote he is holding. Adam warly watches Brennan press down on the remote and quickly falls to the floor as suddenly, pain radiates from his neck all across his body causing his body to feel as if it is on fire. 

Brennan watches as Adam writhes on the floor trying not to cry out in pain. Angry, Brennan increases the intensity and is pleased when Adam screams out in pain as he is no longer able to keep in his cries. Tear’s begin to run down his face as he lays on the floor, body spasming in pain. 

After what felt like hours, Adam finally felt the pain dissipate as Brennan released his grip on the button. Brennan strolls out of the room leaving Adam lying on the floor drenched in sweat and gasping for air on the floor. Adam, normally optimistic, begins to doubt that he will make it out of this ordeal alive. 

The door to the room opens and Adam is greeted by Shamilar holding a tray of food. She places it on the floor in front of Adam’s prone form and leaves the room without a word. 

Glancing warily at the food, Adam tries his best to sit up, body still shaking with residual pain, and begins picking away at the food. After a few minutes Adam stops eating as he is overcome with nausea and lays back down and falls asleep, body still shaking from the pain.


	3. Desperate

About four hours later: 

A little bit later, Adam was startled awake when the door was violently slammed open causing him to jump, grunting when his body protested the sudden movement. 

“Wakey Wakey Adam. Did you sleep well? No? Oh well, let's get started,” Brennan mockingly says clapping his hands together. 

Annoyed, Adam slowly stands up glaring daggers at Brennan. Wobbling on his feet, Adam has to grab onto the wall to keep from falling over as he is hit with a dizzy spell. 

“Now Adam, I want a good fight. I want you to actually try. If I feel you are not trying I will punish you and we will continue this later. Understand?” Brennan states, amused at watching Adam struggle to stand up. 

Adam nods his head and stretches his muscles, rolling out his neck and cracking his back as the muscles were stiff from sleeping on the floor. Adam is still very dizzy and sore as he watches Brennan get into his fighting stance, and beckons Adam to do the same. 

Adam puts his arms up ready to fight even though he knows this will not go well in his weakened state and has a strategy to try and remove the disk from Brennans neck if he gets the chance. 

Brennan quickly rushes Adam, but Adam easily sidesteps Brennan who did not expect the dodge, allowing Adam to punch him in the stomach. Growling at Adam's blow, Brennan turns back towards him baring his teeth at Adam and begins swinging a vast amount of punches and kicks, many of which land. Adam, only able to block so many punches and kicks in his weakened state, eventually begins to tire, giving Brennan the upper hand. 

Brennan begins to land blow after blow on Adam who no longer has the strength to fight back. Brennan lands a strong blow to his solar plexus immediately knocking the air from Adam’s lungs. 

As he tries to catch his breath, Brennan brings his elbow into the middle of Adam’s back which causes him to drop to the floor. Weakly, Adam tries to get up but is forced back down with a heavy foot stomping down on his back. Gritting his teeth Adam, as his face is up against the dirty concrete, reaches out behind and grabs Brennan's ankle which he pulls causing Brennan to fall down. Brennan quickly gets back up to face Adam who has somehow gotten back on his feet. Adam, full of rage and anger throws himself at Brennan who was stunned by Adam’s sudden power surge. 

Adam is able to land some blows and kicks with surprising amounts of strength in his weakened state and begins to go for Brennans neck which is stopped when Brennan takes out the remote and presses the button. 

“Arggggh” Adam cries as he collapses to the floor for a second time that day and begins shaking in pain. Looking up he watches as Brennan walks over to him grinning crazily. 

Brennan stands over Adam grinning and continues to kick Adam in the ribs. Adam can feel his ribs cracking and feels his back being assaulted by Brennan's feet while he is still writhing on the floor with pain from his SDG. Unable to take the beating any longer, Adam succumbs to the darkness and promptly passes out. 

Brennan turns off the remote leaving Adam bloody, bruised and unconscious laying in the middle of the room, still subconsciously spasming from the intense pain that racked his body moments before. 

Adam sleeps through the rest of the day and well into the next day as his body tries to heal itself from the beating he took from Brennan. The three mutants check on Adam every so often to make sure he is still breathing and alive before their fun is over.


	4. Help

Two days later: 

Adam slowly begins to open his eyes, groaning at the pain in his head and body. He notices Shalimar and Jesse entering the room, both looking at him with mischievous grins. Adam notices that Jesse is holding a hypospray and tries to crawl away from the pair as they start to approach him. 

Shalimar uses her feral instincts and with animal-like reflexes puts Adam in a choke hold allowing Jesse to come up from behind and place the hypospray against Adam’s neck. The pair wait until Adam is completely unconscious before Shalimar can continue with her part of the “fun”.

Jesse leaves the room nodding to Shalimar who walks across the room to grab a pair of chain restraints with wrist cuffs on both ends. Shalimar throws one end of the chain around a bar attached to the ceiling and watches as the other end falls back down. Shalimar then walks over to Adam and lifts his body up and drags him towards the chain. She grabs both his arms and places each wrist in a cuff. Once both his wrists are restrained she watches as Adam’s body sags back down towards the floor but is held upright by his arms. 

Shalimar quietly leaves Adam’s hanging body and walks over to the chair and sits in the corner of the room. Once sitting, Shalimar crosses her arms waiting for Adam to reawaken. 

Uggh where the hell am I and why does everything hurt? Adam mentally asks himself groaning at the throbbing pain growing in his head. As he looks down he notices his shirt is missing and begins to shake a bit in fear and due to the cold air hitting his bare chest. 

Shalimar stalks up behind Adam hungrily, startling him when he feels her sharp nails raking against his back. Groaning and wincing as her claw-like nails run up and down his back, Adam desperately tries to jerk away. Shalimar, enjoying Adam’s reaction, giggles and presses down harder. 

“Oh Adam, so pure with no marks on your skin will make this much more enjoyable” Shalimar exclaims, eyeing his back and chest with a large grin. 

Feeling Shalimar behind him, Adam tries to head butt her but is stopped when she grabs his hair and yanks backwards. Adam groans and gasps as she applies more pressure to his head. As she is holding Adam’s head in place, Shalimar begins to take one finger and press the nail into Adams' back , running it along his back deep enough to leave fairly deep scratches.

Adam grunts and bites his lip to try to prevent himself from crying out in pain. Shalimar increases the pressure which deepens the cuts, causing Adam to yell. 

“Please...Please Shalimar stop. This isn’t you” Adam half sobs half yells, begging Shalimar. Blood begins to drip from Adam’s back as Shalimar continues to cut away at his back listening to Adam’s mix of cries and groans of pain with a feeling of power. 

For Adam, after what felt like a lifetime of being cut by what felt like knives, Shalimar releases Adam’s cuffs and watches as he crumbles to the floor landing on his back, laughing as he cries out in pain. 

Adam, completely exhausted, closes his eyes and waits to hear the door open signaling she has left him alone in the hell hole. Tears begin to run down Adam’s face, a mix of pain, fear, anger and hopelessness causing him to cry. Remembering after having completely forgotten about her, Emma would be returning soon from a vacation in two days. Instantly, Adam feels a spark of hope ignite inside him knowing Emma will rescue him and fix the others. Sadly though, Adam honestly felt he would not be able to hold on for that long as he closed his eyes and fell asleep


	5. Enough

Next day:

Adam jerks awake looking around confusedly at his new surroundings only to realize he is stuck in the medical chair. He looks down to see that his wrists and ankles have once again been bound by the metal restraints attached to the table. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Jesse standing at a table filled with different hyposprays eyeing them excitedly. 

“Ah, I see you're awake. I noticed you have so many different drugs in this room, have you ever used all of them?” Jesse mockingly asks after noticing Adam jerk awake. Jesse walks around the chair to the left side of Adam and shows Adam the hypospray he is holding, taunting him. 

“This here, Adam is hallucinogenic. Basically you will see things that aren’t there and feel things that are not actually happening too! From what I’ve learned and seen, this is enough to break a man. Should we try it?” Jesse asks sarcastically. 

Jesse grasps Adam’s head as he begins to struggle and forces the hypospray into his neck. Adam feels the cool liquid flood his system as he becomes very dizzy and disoriented. Jesse, pleased with the immediate results of the first drug, grabs two more hyposprays. This time one of the hyposprays holds a purple liquid which is a paralytic and the other a clear liquid which was a pain inducing drug. 

Adam, confused and dizzy, continues to weakly struggle in the chair knowing his attempts are in vain even as he feels Jesse push both drugs into his system. Immediately Adam’s body goes numb. The only part of his body Adam is able to control are his eyes, mouth, and luckily he can still control his breathing. As the pain from the drug begins to rip through his body, tearing it apart from the inside, all Adam can do is cry as he cannot move anything else. 

Adam see’s Jesse call Brennan in to watch over him as he begins to notice changing colors and shapes appearing in his line of vision. 

“Nooo…..please…..” Adam whispers as he sees giant shapes moving towards him. Unable to struggle Adam closes his eyes to stop him from looking at the monsters plaguing his mind. 

Completely drugged out of his mind, in pain, paralyzed and hallucinating all sorts of creatures and monsters, Adam eventually passes out as his system is overloaded and can only handle so much trauma.


	6. Rescue

The next day: 

Emma casually strolls into Sanctuary suitcase in hand, fully expecting to see Adam, Brennan, Shalimar and Jesse waiting to greet her but is met with nothing. Confused, she tries to contact Brennan, Shalimar and Jesse through the COM-links. Receiving no response she tries to connect to them telepathically but finds that she is stonewalled and unable to connect with any of them. 

Emma begins to panic and tries to contact Adam.   
“Oh my god!” Emma gasps as she psionically connects with Adam and immediately is hit with a wave of pain which drops her to her knees, suitcase laying on the floor completely forgotten. 

Quickly Emma closes her eyes to try and locate Adam. Successfully finding him mentally, she quickly rushes to where she had seen him when she made contact and quickly pushes open the door. 

Emma gasps when she sees Adam's broken body splayed out on the floor . Emma closes the distance between her and Adam and notices how badly bruised and bloody his body is. She quickly glances at the spotty bruising covering his torso all the way up to his neck. Reaching out a hand, Emma feels for a pulse, sighing when she finds it. “Weak and thready but there”  
Emma mentally notes. 

I wonder what the rest of his body looks like? Emma thought shuddering at the possibilities. Emma rolls Adam over and begins to examine his injuries when she hears a slight groan escape his lips. 

Confused Adam looks up at Emma and believes she is a hallucination from the drugs. He jumps when he feels Emma’s hand on his shoulder and begins to cry in relief as he realizes Emma is there with him. 

“Adam?” Emma worriedly asks, shaking him slightly. 

“E...mm..a” Adam slurredly whispers so quietly that if Emma had not been waiting for a response she would have missed it. 

“Adam who did this to you?” Emma asks as she starts to panic , realizing the severity of the condition her fatherly figure is in. 

“Te...a...m” Adam slurs. 

“Team?” Emma asks, confusion evident in her voice. 

“Not….rig..ht...mind” Adam declares to Emma, giving her a sympathetic look. 

Suddenly the two of them are startled by the thud of the door being slammed open to find Brennan staring at the two of them with an angry look on his face as his eyes glow a bright green. 

“Brennan? What’s wrong with you?” Emma asks as she takes in his appearance, specifically the circular metal disk at his neck and the glowing green eyes. Brennan begins to create an electrical current when Emma sends a psionic blast that hits him square in the head and whilst causing the disk attached to his neck to fall off. Immediately Brennan's eyes return to their normal color and he collapses to the floor. 

As he groans from his position on the ground, holding his head trying to ease the pain from what feels like a bad hangover, he looks up at a panic stricken Emma who turns around staring back at the ground. Following her gaze, he notices Adam laying on the floor clearly trying not to pass out and drenched in sweat. 

“Wha… What the hell happened?” Brennan asks as he begins to stand up and rush over to Emma as panic and fear begin to bubble up in his chest as he drops down next to Emma. 

As soon as Adam see’s Brennan appear at Emma’s side he begins to squirm and panic trying to get as far away from Brennan as he can. He cries out in pain as his battered body refuses to listen and is steadied by Brennan’s strong hands. 

Brennan notices how immediately when he touches Adam, Adam jerks at the touch as if expecting to be hit. Suddenly it dawned on him what happened, his stomach dropping as all the air left his lungs. Brennan stands up but is unable to remember what happened. 

Filling in the blanks in his mind he cries, tears streaming down his face, “Adam, Oh my god. I cannot believe what happened. The last thing I truly remember is being hit with a disk of Ashlocks and then everything goes blank.” Explains Brennan hurriedly. 

Adam looks over at Brennan, noticing that lack of a metal disk at his neck and the brown eyes looking at him guiltily. Adam nods at Brennan, who understands the deeper meaning and stares at Adam, giving him a small sad smile. 

All three of them look over their shoulders as the door is thrown open by an angry looking Shalimar and Jesse who are staring daggers at the three of them with their piercing green eyes. Brennan throws a bolt of lightning at the two of them which short circuits the disks on their necks. The disks clatter on the floor just like the two mutants as they collapse. Both Shalimar and Jesse groan in confusion as they begin to stand up and hold their heads like Brennan had before. 

Looking around the room, they notice Emma crouched next to someone and Brennan standing behind her clearly disturbed by something but to the two of them they are unsure of what. As the pair walk closer to Emma they glance down at the figure on the floor and gasp when they realize it’s Adam. 

Adam looks up at them as his body begins to tremble with fear at the thought of being caught but then notices their natural eye colors and relaxes slightly. Shalimar and Jesse do not fail to see Adam’s fear in his eyes when he notices the two of them and feel a sudden pressure building in their heads.

Suddenly Brennan, Jesse and Shalimar each grab their own heads as flashes of light and sounds and memories flit through their mind showing them to the fullest extent what had happened the past couple of days. 

Jesse, turning green, is horrified and runs to the corner and is sick. Shalimar begins crying and shaking as she looks at Adam who is bloody and broken on the floor. She stares at his neck and begins to sob even harder knowing her own hands are what caused such horrendous bruising around his neck. 

“Em...ma,” Adam whispers weakly trying to get Emma’s attention “The..re.s a...subde...rm..al…. governor….on my...neck”.

Surprised Emma gently turns Adam’s head as he grunts and jerks in pain. Emma’s eyes immediately dart to the silver circle on the back of his neck. 

“Jesse” Emma frantically calls, “I need you to phase through Adam’s neck to grab the SDG.”

“What? How does he have one of tho…..oh” Jesse mutters as he looks down at Adam, when his mind is invaded with brief glimpses of how that SDG got into Adams neck. 

Adam gives Jesse a forgiving look and nod that ends in a grunt, which signals to Jesse that he can phase through Adam’s neck and grab the SDG. Shakily reaching his blurred hand through Adam’s neck, he latched onto the metal device and phased it out of Adam’s neck. Once the governor is gone, Adam looks at the team surrounding him and closes his eyes and smiles, passing out from the pain and knowledge he is surrounded by his family again. 

The four of them carefully but quickly lift Adam up off the cold and dirty ground, bringing him to the med bay. When they stalk through the med lab doors, they notice the restraints and small amounts of blood on the chair. Grimacing, the Brennan, Shalimar and Emma clean the chair, and remove the restraints, while Jesse gently lays Adam down on the chair trying to make him as comfortable as possible. 

Luckily Jesse had been studying medical injuries and treatments as of lately so he took to work fixing Adam.   
“Turn on scan” Jesse commands the computer. A light projects on Adam’s body and scans him from head to toe analyzing the state his body is currently in.

Jesse looks over the schematics of the body scan and sadly looks over towards Adam. 3 cracked ribs, 2 broken, a broken nose, large gashes down his back, and a pretty severe concussion, Jesse reads back to himself from the screen. Sighing, Jesse gets Adam as comfortable as possible. He lets Brennan, Shalimar and Emma back into the room as they sit down in chairs around Adam who was still asleep and very weak. 

“He has a pretty bad concussion and some pretty bad cuts on his back. I wrapped his ribs that were cracked but luckily they were not too completely broken. He has some pretty bad bruising and will be extremely sore for a while. I suggest he not move around much as he will be in a lot of pain. I have given him light pain meds as I do not want to mess with his head injury. I also found traces of various drugs in his system that I think were a result of me. Those should also be fully out of his system by now.” Jesse explains looking at the three of them. 

Brennan and Shalimar stared at Adam, completely consumed by guilt at what they had done. Shalimar wipes away the tears in her eyes, still falling out of shame. They knew and hoped that Adam would not blame them when he awakened and knew that the three of them were not in control of their actions but it did not help alleviate the guilt they still felt. 

Emma gripped Adams' hand waiting for him to resurface, thinking about what she could have done differently. After what felt like hours, they all looked up when they heard a slight groan escape from Adam’s lips. 

“Adam are you okay? Do you need anything? Any pain medication or food or water?” Jesse rambled to Adam, as Adam slowly opened his heavy eyelids, wincing at the stabbing light hitting his eyes. 

“I’m alright for right now” Adam weakly whispered in response. Looking back up at Jesse, he glances to the side and looks at Shalimar, Brennan and even Emma who are wearing similar masks of guilt and shame. 

“You three were not in the correct state of mind. At first it took me a while to see that but I see that now. There are no hard feelings and all of you should not feel guilty whatsoever. I forgive all of you and I know my family would never ever think of betraying one another. So please, do not wallow in guilt and sadness and just be happy its over. Go have fun or watch a movie or something. I think I'm going to rest for a bit.” Adam says as he struggles to keep his eyes open, in hopes of easing their conscience. 

“Adam, we just wanted to say thank you for giving us your forgiveness and being such a great leader. I still cannot believe the things we did and put you through. If you need anything and I mean anything at all, call through your com-link and we will be here as soon as possible.” Brennan states looking down at the floor in embarrassment and shame. 

Adam smiles up at his team, his family, and drifts off into sleep. The team look at their leader and notice his serene expression and know that eventually given time, everything will be okay.


End file.
